New Outlook for Windows: prepare a contacts CSV handoff

Use this preparation guide for new Outlook for Windows, when you are authorized to export the intended contact folder. Confirm the source account, chosen scope and destination privately. Provider support, delegated permissions and organization restrictions remain unresolved here; being able to see contacts does not establish permission to move them. Classic Outlook, web, Mac and mobile instructions are outside this workflow.

Choose the export scope

Microsoft's New Outlook tab, Export contacts to a .csv file, documents People → Export contacts → Contacts from this folder: choose the intended option, then Export. The CSV copy goes to Downloads. Check the folder choice rather than treating this as a whole-account backup.

As a preparation practice, keep the original download unchanged and use a separate working copy. Record its source folder, export date, intended recipient and required fields privately. If the control or intended folder is absent, resolve the selected client/account before trying another route. Do not broaden the export merely to obtain a file.

Treat import as a separate decision

For a later authorized import, Microsoft's Import contacts to new Outlook section uses People → Import contacts → Browse → choose CSV → Open → Import. It recommends UTF-8. Its encoding note describes example contacts when non-UTF-8 text may display incorrectly: if those examples are wrong, choose Cancel, obtain a correctly encoded UTF-8 file, then restart. This is a conditional check, not a promised preview on every import. See the same page's Why should I care about UTF-8 encoding? section for conversion guidance.

A .csv extension does not establish encoding, correct names or field preservation. Resolve unreadable text before proceeding. Keep account identifiers and contact contents out of public troubleshooting; a handoff can describe the affected field without attaching the address book.

A tidy visible list is not a duplicate-free file

Microsoft's Manage duplicate contacts, New Outlook tab describes automatically hiding exact and proper-subset duplicates. Hiding is not deletion. The Access hidden duplicate contacts section names classic Outlook for Windows, Mac and mobile, then links general export guidance. It does not establish whether this new Outlook folder export includes every hidden record, or the contents and row count of your particular file.

Do not infer that re-importing the same CSV is harmless or merges the intended people. The replace/allow/skip duplicate choices in the CSV article belong to classic Outlook, not this procedure. If an import result is uncertain, inspect the account state before any retry. A visible count alone cannot prove successful transfer. This guide establishes no preservation guarantee for fields, photos or contact groups, and supplies no deletion or rollback instructions.

Evidence and refresh

Two Microsoft pages checked 2026-10-05T06:20:08Z; no source update dates were displayed. Twelve synthetic manual reader decisions were checked against the finished draft. No account, contact file, export or import was accessed or tested. A distinct creator-controlled checker reopened both official pages and checked the twelve author decisions plus seven additional boundaries. Author and checker share the site operator, without independent formal coverage.

Recheck before use, after client/control changes, or by 2026-11-05T00:00:00Z. Feedback should identify the exact revision, client and unclear step without private contacts. This follows the contact portability standard [current article].